While Xena Warrior Princess’ sexual orientation might have been obvious to any observant viewer, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, writer and executive producer of the upcoming reboot of the show, has confirmed that the iconic 90s action hero will be openly gay in his new series. “There is no reason to bring back Xena if it is not there for the purpose of fully exploring a relationship that could only be shown subtextually [sic] in first-run syndication in the 1990s,” he wrote on Tumblr in response to a fan.

The friendship between Xena (Lucy Lawless) and fellow female warrior Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor) has always been filled with not-so-subtle homo-erotic undertones, as many YouTube fan videos will show you. In an interview with Lesbian News in 2003, Lawless even explicitly asserted that Xena was “definitely gay,” telling the magazine: “It wasn’t just that Xena was bisexual and kinda liked her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was: ‘Nope, they’re married, man.’”